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The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934 (Decca 264A) featuring Tom Stacks on vocal, the version shown in the Variety charts of December 1934. The song was a sheet music hit, reaching number 1. The song was also recorded on September 26, 1935, by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra.[citation needed]

The song is a traditionalstandard at Christmas time and has been covered by numerous recording artists. The 1951 version by Perry Como was the first measurable hit; Gene Autry, the country-western artist, recorded a Christmas album with this title and featuring the song in 1953; and in 1963 the Four Seasons version charted at number 23 on Billboard.[4] In 1970 Rankin-Bass produced an hour-long animated television special based on the song, with Fred Astaire narrating the origin of Santa Claus. In 1970 Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 delivered a chart-topping Motown arrangement, and many contemporary artists have recorded and performed various versions of the song, including a rock version by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. The song was recorded in a 1975 live version and eventually released first in 1982 as part of the Sesame Street compilation album In Harmony 2 and again in 1985 as a B-side to "My Hometown", a single from the Born in the U.S.A. album.[5] Live performances of the song by the band often saw the band encouraging the audience to sing some of the lyrics with or in place of the band singing them (usually the line "be good for goodness sake", though the band would also sometime encourage the audience to also sing the key line "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" as well), and sometimes to sing along with the song completely, though many times crowds would do so even without the encouragement and the band would do nothing to dissuade those audiences who did so, and it remained a crowd favorite during the months of November and December when the group would perform. The band is among the few that would keep the song in their roster of songs during the holidays. Luis Miguel recorded the song in Spanish as "Santa Claus Llegó a La Ciudad" for his Christmas album Navidades (2006).[6] His version of the song peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Latin Pop Songs chart.[7]